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In spite of the JOY, there was still a part of West that hoped no one walked in on this homey little scene, even if he was... enjoying himself. He stirred the dough gently enough at first, keeping his hands steady as everything became progressively more difficult to mix. When Levi finished sifting in her ingredients, he began stirring in earnest, eventually finding himself with a thoroughly acceptable mound of dough. It wasn't lumpy or discolored, and it didn't smell funny at all. It was just dough. He shouldn't have been surprised. Levi had been there the whole time to make sure things didn't go to s**t. And yet, he was. West set the spoon aside once he was done and peered at the recipe again. It appeared to finally be the time for balls.

He left the dough alone for a moment and retrieved a tray from the heap of clean dishes, letting the silence drag out between them while he thought about how to respond. "Mm." He hadn't really meant to mention his old school at all, let alone continue to talk about it, but he had been, well, too distracted by baking to realize what he had been saying. He supposed sharing a little more at this point wouldn't hurt. West felt a twinge of guilt over his desire to hide his past, but what could he do? It was difficult enough for him to sort out his feelings about that time for himself. He didn't think he could get it all across without things going horribly wrong. Still, he had to try. She had asked.

"I... it was fine," he began, turning back to the bowl and pulling out a little ball of dough. "Demons're kinda snotty when you get 'em all inna room t'gether, but there were some good guys there. I'm used t'snotty anyway." He rolled the dough between his palms and placed it on the tray. "I think my dad woulda been happier if I'd stayed, t'be honest. It was th'school he'd gone to. But I didn't belong anymore. I wanted t'leave. Amityville was the only place I applied to t'transfer. An' I got in." He ducked his head slightly and smiled to himself as he took more dough.

Ms. Thistletooth's shed, hm? West turned his smirk to her, choosing his next words very carefully. "What did y'learn there?" He'd always had an idea in his head of where she came from and what it was like, but it was comments like that one that made the demon wonder if he really had any idea at all.

"What're you...?" West turned the spookie cutter over in his hand when she gave it to him. Oh. Human-shaped spookies. Right. He silently moved aside and watched her roll out the balls he had made, stopping himself from reaching out to save the last of them from getting flattened. Oh, well. At least Levi had witnessed firsthand the skill and grace he brought to regular old round spookie making. If he thought about it for more than a handful of seconds, he wondered why that even mattered. It was easier not to think, especially when she looked up at him like that. He noticed when her gaze flicked higher too, though it took him a moment to realize what it meant. That plant. That toe missile stuff humans kissed under. She was looking for some. He leaned forward slightly, but the opportunity for makeouts had passed. He'd have to look for a chance to get back to it later.

West nodded as she gave him her next set of instructions, glancing back at her tail with a smirk. "You gonna put me in my place if I don't punch 'em out quick enough?" It was a good thing that punching stuff, whether it was sentient or made of dough, was his forte. "I got this."

The boil carefully pressed the cutter into the rolled out dough time and time again, leaving behind an army of human silhouettes. He took a step back into her taskmaster tail when he had finished, having momentarily forgotten it was there. His arms crossed across his chest to hide his stumble and he grinned.

"So y'learned how not t'poison yerself and how t'grow things." West nodded, still smiling. "I'm gonna get myself killed in yer town if those're the kinds of things I need t'know." He chuckled, picking at the dough that was left between the spookies. "Gonna have t'learn somethin' 'bout it all before..." He cleared his throat and looked up, staring at the little tree at the end of the table with a bit too much interest. "So what's next? Oven, right?" Smooth. At least his throat didn't hurt as much as it had before.

Why, yes, he was good with his hands, if he did say so himself. Sadly, the boil could tell she meant nothing more than exactly what she had said long before Levi continued to speak. He was really going to have to find a way to get her more in tune with the power of innuendo. She was fine with it every once in a while, but... "good with his hands?" C'mon! From what he could recall of his formative years, his mind had grown filthier with experience. He would have to take it upon himself to provide more of that.

At the very least, it was nice to hear that he seemed to possess another quality that her kind lauded besides... fuzziness. He looked down at his fingers, wiggling them briefly. Picking candy corn. Sure. He could do that, as long as it was on a temporary basis. It wasn't that he feared being shunned by her people for not fitting in, he would just prefer to lay low if possible, for her sake. He doubted getting into a fist fight, or worse, spitefully using his power to cause her kin to fight each other, would go over well at all. Then again, considering how Levi had turned out, maybe they would appreciate it. He honestly had no idea.

West didn't have much time to think about all that anyway. Levi's tail slinked around his as she continued with the spookies, and he squeezed back before it was gone, smirking at her wink. He could have come up with several more entertaining ways to spend ten minutes, ones that would prove just how good he was with his hands and give her more of that much needed experience, but he knew if they went down that road, the spookies would end up ruined. Just because he tended toward distraction when she was near didn't mean he had forgotten that he was the one who had asked her to come make the things in the first place. He would have spookies, and they would have icing, jackdammit.

He jerked his chin toward the cabinet that held the smaller bowls, moving to retrieve them a second later when he realized he was closer. They were plain and white, and only one was chipped slightly around its edges, the one he used regularly. He began to lay them out in front of her, eight in total.

"I meant to... thank you," he said, his smirk returning. "Fer comin'. And not..."

He had been about to say "making fun of me," but that wasn't right. He had never thought she would. Besides, he would have promptly socked her in the arm if she mocked his request or his sweater, and he would have enjoyed every second of it. Actually, what West was thankful for was that she hadn't flat out said no when he'd asked. It was nice to have someone to call when you wanted to make spookies who would actually show up.

"...Makin' some excuse," he finished. His voice was light, and he grinned as he let go of the last bowl. "I can't come. I gotta wash my hair," he teased. West gently tugged at one of her pale locks, his smile fading from his lips but remaining in his eyes. "It's silly." He glanced at the powdered icing and food coloring as he let her hair go and it sproinged back into place. "Water's next, right?"

He stirred and blended, coaxing the lumps from the icing as he continued the conversation.

"No one's ever told me they were washin' their hair t'get outta doin' somethin' with me, no," he said with a shrug. That had been the favorite excuse of the ghouls on the skeevee shows his mother liked. "I never woulda asked anyone else t'make spookies though, so I dunno what they woulda said t'that specifically. Everyone's always got reasons not to do the things they dun wanna do, 'specially demons." He'd run into plenty of excuses that were much more believable than hair washing in his time.

Once the icing was mixed, West spooned each color into a separate bag and dropped a pair of scissors on the table nearby. Best to leave the bags intact until the spookies were cool, but what to do now? He smirked at her suggestion of manual labor and her loaded glance, determined to keep from rising to her bait at the moment. This was a game, and he was going to win, no matter how much it felt like he might be losing. His smirk faded slightly as he turned away from her instead, narrowing his eyes at the dishes. Spookie mix encrusted bowls. Food coloring on the spoons and his hands. Random heaps of sugar on the trays. As each bit of dirt and grime caught his attention, West found himself wondering, with increasing seriousness, whether he could convince Levi to let him toss all of the dishes and utensils in the trash. She could even come with him to the maul to buy new things! He sighed faintly. No. Somehow he just didn't see her agreeing to that.

The boil finally nodded, coming to terms with the reality of impending scrubbing. Much as he had before, he stationed himself at the sink and began to clean, taking more time to do so than he had previously. The effort required to rinse dust off of never-used dishware paled in comparison to what was needed to actually clean, but once he got going he was done quickly enough, turning a grin back on Levi as he dried his hands. His expression clearly read Where's my reward? but he ever so graciously asked, "They ready?" instead. It was icing time.

He had no jackin' idea how to decorate spookies.

Once everything was in place, West leaned over the spookie tray and chose his first victim, taking his own covert sniff of their baked goods as Levi's tail squeezed his leg. He refrained from nudging her shoulder as she worked, watching her cut the icing bag and carefully pipe a thin line of green around the outside of her edible human. When she started decorating her spookie in earnest, the boil picked up each of the tiny containers as the tatzel put them down, eyeing the colorful bits with scrutiny. Finally, when she had almost completed hers, West began his.

First came the green icing she had already used, but instead of tracing it around the edge of his spookie, West spread copious amounts of the festive color across its bottom half. The top received a generous dollop of white, then several uneven red stripes. Finally, he finished up the face, squeezing on the best icing representation of a human expression he could muster.

"This one got told Sandy Claws left all his presents at the neighbors'," West muttered, carefully poking one last sprinkle into the spookie's icing pants. "And when he went over t'get 'em, the neighbor said they were her presents now, an' what was he gonna do about it? An' then he..." He trailed off, reluctant to continue his story once he realized it wasn't quite in the spirit of the holiday. The pull between his nature and the feeling of JOY wafting through the air wasn't nearly as strong as his conflict of interest had been at Scarentine's all those months ago, but it still made him hesitate. Eventually, however, he shrugged and continued, smacking his fist into his opposite palm to punctuate the tale's end. "An' then he showed her what he was gonna do about it, and in the struggle, she got him good in the eye. Popped it right out."

Pleased with his story, West nodded once and grinned at Levi, looping an arm around her shoulders and planting a quick kiss in her hair. A smirk remained on his lips as he moved away again, slipping his hands into his pockets and examining their current creations side by side.

West chuckled, grabbing his second spookie and dropping it on the counter from a height that proved to be too much for the confection. A muffled crack accompanied its landing, and the unfortunate spookie's arm snapped at the shoulder, skidding several inches away in a miniature shower of crumbs. He wasted no time on frustration or dismay, lifting the severed arm from the tray to his mouth and chewing as he contemplated what remained of his canvas.

He nodded. "Good," he said, commenting on both the taste and the conclusion he had reached. West scooped up the bag of blue icing a moment later and got to work.

"This is one of them guys who brings letters an' crap to humans." It took him several minutes after he spoke to carefully decorate the mail person and his shimmering suit of sprinkles. West hesitated when he got to the mark of authority. What did human boogeymen use to indicate their position instead of cloaks? He shrugged and added a skull pin.


"He came along behind that milk human t'give the eye popper a letter, but right as he was handin' it off..."

The boil took another spookie and turned it on its side before he started decorating. "This one..." He finished with the icing much faster this time, and if the finished product didn't quite resemble a certain hellhound they were both familiar with, it was only because they hadn't mixed any black.

"This's th' dog that bit his arm off."


Okay, so he might not have been displaying any of his human world knowledge at this point, but it was still a damn good story. He looked at Levi, his eyes narrowing in amusement and challenge. Beat that.

Pleased by her reaction, West crossed his arms and stood a little taller as the tatzel gushed over his hellhound spookie. Demi might have been a little s**t most of the time, but who wasn't? The fact that he'd taken the extra time to color in all million of the boil's stupid heads meant he couldn't hate him that much, right? "Yeah, you can have 'im," he said with a smile. "He'd jus' get stuck in my throat on th' way down anyway."

With all of their spookies finally decorated and laid out to dry, the demon looked on curiously as Levi cut up a pile of little ropes and began tying them into tiny nooses. While the whole operation was rather impressive and kind of hot, West hadn't the slightest idea of how to make one on his own. Apparently, his childhood games had featured a distinct lack of knots. He squinted at Levi's string then looked back at his own. Surely he could fake it.

"Give 'em here," he said to no one in particular, considering that the next thing he did was reach over and take a couple of pieces for himself. He wiggled the first of his strings around, looping it over itself almost at random, then, once he deemed it thoroughly knotted, he tugged at the loose ends, expecting everything to fall into place. Instead, the smug look dropped from his face as the knot unraveled, leaving the string as straight as it had been when he'd started.

He sighed. "Fine. Teach me yer fancy tatzel knots."